Bestra

I tell myself I’m going to wait to purchase more OCS until I at least play a scenario from each of the other ones on my shelf, but when a wild DAK appears at a good cost it’s hard not to snatch it up. Sicily II is great!

Empire of the Sun - Teach & Play with Designer Mark Herman YouTube video by Homo Ludens

When I was learning, the Homo Ludens teach with Mark was helpful www.youtube.com/live/FXMNNHR...

When you start playing a new series and you “keep an eye out” for the out of print ones…and buy them all in 3 weeks in a series of happy accidents.

Great seeing a before/after! I had a small pile of these new trays come last week but I haven’t put them to use yet. Every time I make a cube4me order I wish I’d doubled it like a month later.

I feel like you just saw me putting that copy of Slaughter at Ponyri in my closet because my shelf is full 😂.

Personally I love both systems. Starter Kit is an excellent bang for your buck!

Molly house in the house!

Hungarian Rhapsody! First time doing a 2-map scenario.

I’ve had a rotating ASL scenario hanging out on the edge of my table for the last few months! It’s great for a change of pace from a bigger game. I do most of my playing in the evenings after the kids are in bed and only have so much mental capacity.

Hungarian Rhapsody!

Setting up the first scenario in Hungarian Rhapsody. I’ll punch the counters incrementally depending on how painful the stacks are 😂.

I’d love to play it with a different group to see how the negotiation meta develops. We were pretty limited. The number of levers you can pull is overwhelming that first time. Also not knowing the deck. I think I’ll be able to get it back on the table with a year 🤞

The next day we did a game of John Company. Our group had played this one before. The company did great until the chairman decided to sink us! I’m hoping we can try out firms for our next play.

Six of us played our first game of @gmtgames.bsky.social Here I Stand over two days this weekend, ending up with an Ottoman auto victory. We spread our play across three meals and a night of rest. Most of us woke up having dreamt of playing! We had a great time.

You are not wrong!

I really think Toll the Hounds is my favorite book in the series!

Those stickers and the packing sheets have saved me so much potential heartache. I need a “just double my order” checkbox from them to account for the games I haven’t bought yet.

It really does have the best index in board games! I found Jay Richardsons starter kit tutorials on bgg were still useful for learning full ASL. The ASL Academy YouTube channel has been my go to! Neal’s content is really well done. Finally Jim Bishop’s blog posts are great deep dives.

Empire of the Sun by GMT games. The board is a map of the pacific at the end of the 1942 scenario. There are unclipped square chits strewn about.

Finally sunk my teeth into Empire of the Sun! This is the 1942 scenario with Erasmus as a basic guide for both sides to learn the broad strokes. Lots of small mistakes but so much fun! @markherman54.bsky.social has a huge corpus of helpful writing on it. Surprise JP auto win in the last card.

This sends me back to sixth grade! I have my copy sitting on my shelf next to the ASL stuff now. Thanks for continuing to add these tray kits!

RTT keeps going from strength to strength.

GTC: Burnside’s over here bridging the James rather than waiting for Ewell to box him in. Lee got off a +9 attack against poor Crawford. Things continue to stay interesting as units pour in.

Love your enthusiasm in the review! I also started from “I’ll never play this” earlier this year and Luzon was my gateway. Chip Saltsman’s walk throughs were a big help! I have the space for the big games but it’s still hard having something on the table for weeks. I hope you dive into Korea!

The homo ludens play through with Mark Herman www.youtube.com/live/FXMNNHR... is a fantastic intro. Also Mark’s advice of “Just play it” struck me. There’s so much written material by him and others on the strategy that it was very intimidating to me beforehand. It’s literally next on my queue!

Downfall by Chad Jensen. A map of Western Europe with cardboard chits representing German and Russian units.

Yesssss! I bought a folding table just so I could keep this set up in my office at the time, and that table has had a game of some sort set up since November of last year. I really liked the chit pull system here. Don’t attack in the winter!

I’m curious if we’ll see anything alluding to this in Wind and Truth! I enjoyed it, it’s a good standalone book that has plenty of tie ins for Cosmere fans.

Still slowly chugging along with Grant Takes Command, it’s becoming a mess in the best way possible. Did a game of Scythe with friends too, even with 5 players it still really moves.

Grant Takes Command! Less than halfway through the campaign playing solo. BCS is fantastic, I think Panzers Last Stand is next in the queue for me.

I’ve played this and Sicily II solo, and so far “I’m having a great time playing this horribly” has been the feeling. Having fog of war rules for the stacks where you come back a day later and truly can’t remember how many points are under an enemy unit is refreshing. Love to see you playing!

I’m a total convert back to plain paper. Ceiling lights 7ft above you make it so you’re having to wiggle around to see stuff on glossy paper. Mmp changed their GCACW series rules from “pretty dang glossy” to “only a little glossy” in their last update and it’s so much better. Love gmt’s format.